Sawahlunto
UNESCO World Heritage Site Inscribed 2019; A Dutch Coal Town Built On Convict Labour Worked In Chains, Which Emptied When The Seam Did And Reinvented Itself As Its Own Museum · Sawahlunto, West Sumatra
The Dutch found coal in this valley and built everything needed to get it out: a company town, a railway down the mountains to the sea at Padang, workshops, a power station and a kitchen that fed thousands. THE LABOUR IS THE PART THE UNESCO LISTING DOES NOT LET YOU SKIP. Much of it was CONVICT AND FORCED LABOUR brought from Java and elsewhere and WORKED IN CHAINS - the ORANG RANTAI, the chained people - and a great many of them died here. The mixing of Javanese, Minangkabau, Chinese and others under those conditions produced a local culture and a creole that exists nowhere else. WHEN THE SEAM FAILED THE TOWN NEARLY EMPTIED, and it survived by turning itself into a museum of what it had been. IT WAS INSCRIBED BY UNESCO IN 2019 as the Ombilin Coal Mining Heritage of Sawahlunto - and almost no foreign visitors have been since, which for a World Heritage site is a strange thing to be able to write.
Sawahlunto, West Sumatra, Sawahlunto, West Sumatra, Indonesia
SAWAHLUNTO IS A SMALL TOWN AND THE SITES ARE SCATTERED ACROSS IT, each ticketed separately and cheaply, most CLOSING ON MONDAYS as Indonesian museums do. THE MBAH SOERO MINE can be entered on a short guided walk - helmets and boots are provided and it is closed when water levels rise. GOEDANG RANSOEM, the enormous kitchen that fed the miners, is now a museum, as are the railway depot and the old power station. IT IS ABOUT THREE HOURS BY ROAD FROM PADANG, which has the flights, or less from Bukittinggi. THE TOWN IS COMPACT AND WALKABLE and everything can be done on foot in a day. It sits in a valley at moderate altitude and is cooler than the coast. A combined ticket is sometimes offered - ask at the first site you reach.